I suppose if you’re like me, you aren’t surprised anymore by how unbelievably amoral some corporations are or can become.
In a bitterly funny turn of events, Cisco gets slammed by its owned shareholders for apparently allowing the Chinese government the use of tools to restrict internet access to sites deemed not in their “national interests”, whatever that means.
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“Cisco does not participate in any way in any censorship activities in the People’s Republic of China,” Alberstein says. “We have never custom-tailored our products for the China market, and the products that we sell in China are the same products we sell everywhere else.”
Which, of course, is the same as saying “we don’t do the censorship, nevermind if we make it easier for them to do it”. Double you just love neutered double-speak? Another one:
Export constraints passed in the wake of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre block U.S. companies from selling “any crime control or detection instruments or equipment” to China. Cisco says networking equipment is not covered by the prohibition. “We do sell our products to law enforcement agencies around the world, including China,” says Alberstein. “And we do that in full compliance with Department of Commerce export regulations.”
I find it sometimes amusing how following the letter of the law is used as permission to flout ethics, don’t you?
